The Amiga as a computer built to last 50 years (2022) | Hacker News Reader

The Amiga as a computer built to last 50 years (2022)

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47 pointsthrowup23826 comments

I bought an Amiga 1200 (used) in the mid '90s, invested in a then expensive Blizzard 1260 and SCSI, used the system for years as my primary work computer, then rackmounted it and turned it in to NetBSD server.

Sure, it had to be recapped, and it has gone through several drives, but it has run mostly continuously since 1995. It's good hardware, and it's responsible for many of the m68k pkgsrc binary packages available today.

Just recently I recapped an Amiga 3000 and started playing with AmigaDOS 3.2.2. I could browse the web, with https, with 16 megs on a 25 MHz m68030. Because of Datatypes, I could even see webp, which my previous Mac couldn't. The OS has had recent updates. AmiSSL is based off of OpenSSL 3.x. Software and browsers are still being updated. It's amazing.

It's definitely an excellent candidate for a 50 year computer :)

I have to say I've been eyeing a Vampire standalone to play with the Amiga platform again. But I know I'll not have enough time to dedicate to it.

DataTypes was and is such a brilliant invention.

The closest we have to them is COM, and it doesn't cover all use cases, nor is as friendly to develop for.

There are also XPC, Binder, D-BUS, all of which are even less adopted as Data Types were.

> https, with 16 megs on a 25 MHz m68030

I imagine that's a bit slow.

The sentiment is nice, and while I wouldn't mind owning an Amiga again (my dad had an Amiga 2000 back in the early 90s), I'm concerned about the video output issue.

Namely, will I be able to find a screen that works and doesn't weigh a ton?

Yes.

I have a few LCDs that work natively, but you can always use OSSC or something cheaper but less universal

There are mods, something which takes a Raspberry Pi and uses it as a video converter and makes an Amiga 500 have HDMI output. But I think the FPGA Amigas are also very cool.

https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI/wiki

There's also a mod where you put a raspberry pi on top of the CPU, replacing the 68000 7 MHz CPU with an emulated 68060 at something like gigahertz speed.

Amiga needs 2038 date patch like NeXT.

Also a patched AmiTCP/IP stack that supports IPv6.

oNLY aMiGa mAKEs iT pOSSiBLe

>Amiga needs 2038 date patch like NeXT.

Kinda, but that'd be AmigaOS (netbsd already uses 64bit time), and the year isn't 2038 because AmigaOS does not base its time on UNIX epoch.

Yes corrected that's AmigaOS.

Well I guess it depends what you use it for, Websites throw a hissy fit if there is a different date to the local machine?

Dating files in the filesystem would be the primary concern for most.

I think the Amiga is such a nice candidate for an autarkic computer design. Simple enough to not be completely unrealistic, interesting enough to be worth it, and by now, insanely well documented.

The Raspberry Pi fits the bill better - it will run some form of desktop Linux for a long time into the future and it is such a simple cheap design - just 4 IC's with some bits.

The same can't be said of the A1200 - flaky old circuitry that you cannot source new parts for except cannibalize donor boards - and it is huge and slowww.

The pi is largely undocumented and otherwise proprietary. It's owned by broadcom who are otherwise known for putting everything behind an nda. No, the pi is a lot, but it's not a platform i would bet on to be available in 50 years.

Yes the Amiga OCS can be implemented on a FPGA but nobody is running the 68K architecture (Paula/Agnus/Denise ain't nothing special) anymore except for ColdFire variants still used in the automotive world and in laser printers.

ARM is rather ubiquitous at this stage considering the number of implementations in the world since the first Android phones went on sale.

It will be around for far longer than the 68K.

> such a simple cheap design - just 4 IC's

Which are absurdly complicated and proprietary SOCs

Still waiting for Kick 3.1 to be ported to Raspberry Pi or Nextstep 3.3/OpenStep 4.2

Kick 3.1 (Not the full size AROS)

No system with the number of custom ICs found in the Amiga is a self-sufficient design.

The ultimate self-sufficient design is the IBM PC. Today, right now, you can find a compatible version of every single component used to manufacture the original IBM PC sitting on a shelf somewhere for sale.

Try replacing a Gail, Paula, Alice, or Lisa that's gone bad in an A1200.

What makes the design of the IBM PC ultimately self-sufficient relative to other early designs like the Apple II, MITS Altair 8800, TRS-80, etc?

It was mostly off the shelf components, except for the BIOS, hence why they were so easy to clone after Compaq's sucessful reverse engineeering of it.

IBM tried to take over its lost property with the PS/2 MCA architecture, but it was largely ignored.

Yes, but the ones I mentioned, and many others, were also all off the shelf components. Why was the IBM PC "ultimate" relative to them?

Have an upvote, but I didn't mean what old chips you can get off the shelf right now. I meant what you could build with a budget and a chip factory. There are so many Verilog and FPGA implementations of Amigas to start from. (Related note: the Draco "Amiga compatible" ran AmigaOS and "well behaved" programs, even though it didn't have the custom Amiga chips, just the m68k processor.)

The Amiga is in a such a sweet spot, because you can do all "modern" things like web browsing, developing with an IDE, play movies and music etc etc, while still being very simple and easy to understand.

IBM PC clones win on the "easy to understand" front but they are clearly from a previous era. Amigas are somewhere in between...

My original Amiga (1000), Amiga 500, and Amiga 2000 all still work like I just took them out the box.

I hope you removed the barrel battery from that A2000, and potentially from expansions in A1000 and A500.

Title needs (2022).

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